Comments on: The Chapel Built by Cigarettes

By: Researcher

Researcher — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:42:12 +0000

I find the use of tobacco as currency rather curious because you smoke it and it’s gone. There is a transient dopamine effect, and I guess in a time of constant stress and warfare, that could explain the high value set on cigarettes.

I also seem to remember a story from the Babbel book about a vicious fight that broke out over a cigarette butt that an army officer tossed in the street of a European city. Something you can hardly imagine happening now in civilized Europe. I worked with an investigator, a 15 year old girl, who would bum cigarettes off of strangers while walking down the street. I can’t remember anyone ever refusing her one.

By: Researcher

Researcher — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:32:58 +0000

#22 (Snicker.) Boy, this blog specializes in Scotch humor!

By: Eric Boysen

Eric Boysen — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:32:08 +0000

On a serious note, what troubles me more is that using cigarettes as a medium of exchange was to essentially be in the black market, which at a time of national crisis was in some places a capital offense. I’m not sure if laws like that in occupied countries applied to the servicemen, but travelling authorities? I know the practice was common, but was it right? But we are a pragmatic people, and it worked. I love these conundrums.

By: Eric Boysen

Eric Boysen — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:26:21 +0000

Oh, by the way, that bottle of Glenlivit I keep in the cupboard, I use it for the washing of my body.

By: Eric Boysen

Eric Boysen — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:18:41 +0000

What could be wrong with using tobacco products as currency? It is an herb to be used to heal the bruises of cattle, not a forbidden substance!

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 21:16:37 +0000

That is very likely him, Justin, thanks — some further searching shows that ALB as buried in Murray, but I couldn’t find an obituary for him in the week following his death to confirm his military service. Will keep looking.

By: Justin

Justin — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 20:45:10 +0000

Enjoyable post, Ardis. I came across one possibility for Andrew L. Bergman on familysearch (Andrew Leland Bergman, 1914-1990).

By: Mark B.

Mark B. — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:54:37 +0000

Terrific post, Ardis. Two things caught my eye as soon as I saw it: the use of cigarettes as currency in a place where the economy was shot (literally) to pieces (and the good things that could be accomplished by that use). I have mentioned elsewhere the use that my dad and other LDS GIs in immediate postwar Vienna made of their weekly cigarette ration, and the men in Sardinia likewise made good use of theirs. The other is the difference in ages between my dad (born in 1926, and thus among the youngest who would have seen combat in World War II) and the relatively "old" man--born 1908--who leads in your story.

By: Researcher

Researcher — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:23:37 +0000

Thanks, Ardis, now I don’t have to go look through the kids’ rooms to see who took the book off the shelf!

By: Joe Geisner

Joe Geisner — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:18:50 +0000

Ardis,

Thank you for the wonderful post. The history of this chapel is fascinating and inspiring. The faith of the soldiers in wanting to be a community of faith in a far off land is exhilarating. Thank you for sharing this great story.

Joe